Mar 11, 2015

Made of plastic gun caps, Ahmed Mater compares the code of ethics of the American West and statements of Mohammed, known as the Hadith.

No time to hit all of the art fairs this year. It would have been great to see the artists performing the Black Lives Matter protest at the Armory Show on Saturday.

The fair included a timely curated group of artists and galleries from the Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean (MENAM) that immediately softens the edge of a show that is by definition about nothing more than what can be sold for large sums, yet will ideally be resold at obscenely larger sums in future years. That's the nature or the beast, and I'm pretty sure that even bothering to acknowledge this makes you a dinosaur. Who knows if it reflects something else that's going on in the world.

Most striking this year is the preponderance of Instagram-friendly installations and people taking pictures of themselves in and with the art. I see why mirrored and reflective installations were such a phenomenon in the last couple of years.

I enjoy this and find it perfectly fitting for the way are brains are being rewired by electronic media. Everything must flow through it. Everything is connected. Yet the frenetic pace of media fragments it all.

Here's a selection of stand-outs that caught my attention with a view to attendees' interactions.